Monthly Archives: January 2009

GLOBAL – I’m sure many of you will know what Twitter is, so I’ll keep my summary for those that don’t to less than 140 characters: “Twitter is a micro-blogging social network, where you write updates limited to 140 characters, and follow anyone’s ‘tweets’ via mobile or PC”. Wow, that’s 140 characters on the nose! Anyway, I’ve been aware of Twitter since back in early 2007, when I first tweeted to the world, but admittedly I’ve not been a hardcore committed Twitterer, although more recently I’m beginning to get into the rhythm of it. However, in less than a month there seems to have been an explosion in Twitter activity in the UK. Sure it was popular before, but this swell in interest and people using it seems (at least where I’m tweeting from) as somewhat of a UK second wind.

This sparked a few questions, so are you sitting comfortably? Good, then let’s begin…

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GLOBAL – Eleven finalists have been chosen to go forward to the finals of Forum Nokia’s Calling All Innovators global developer competition. Three categories, ECO-challenge, Emerging markets challenge and Technology Showcase, attracted almost 1,000 developers from across EMEA, Americas, APAC and China. The final winners will be announced on the 17 February during Mobile World Congress 2009.

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ESPOO, Finland – Smart phones are fundamentally, well, smart. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with them. Audio Smileys might be designed for kids to have a bit of a laugh with their devices (it’s available on S40 and S60) but I have an inkling that this could take the place of the office whoppee cushion. Well, why not? The latest release from the Beta Labs team, Audio Smileys offers an easy way to turn your keypad into a festival of laughter – simply assign your own choice of funny sounds or tunes to each key, and you can irritate and cajole colleagues, friends or even enemies at the click of a button.

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ESPOO, Finland – The Nokia 6700, Nokia 6303 and Nokia 2700 classics have just been unveiled. This svelte trio of handsets are unabashedly pushing the performance ceiling on mid-range devices, yet it’s clear from their price tags that Nokia is keenly and crucially focussed on delivering top-end value at low cost.

We imagine many online tech pundits will rightly be shouting about the most feature-packed handset of the three, the Nokia 6700 classic with its GPS talents and 5-megapixel camera, and working down through the list of new arrivals towards the least feature-packed phone, the Nokia 2700 classic. But we think the real story and star of the bunch is indeed the 2700 classic. Here’s why…

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ESPOO, Finland – It’s no secret that Nokia is swiftly evolving its internet and location based services, built on the original vision set out by CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo back in May of last year. So today sees Nokia stoke that engine for an extra performance boost with news that it’s acquiring Bit-side GmbH, a cutting-edge mobile software and services outfit that promises to help propel Nokia’s context-aware services, including Nokia Maps, to the next level. And fast.

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HELSINKI, Finland – Here on Conversations we’re always on the hunt for those engaging untold stories behind a product or service, the unlikely heroes pushing innovation, and ultimately stories that we hope give you a genuinely interesting glimpse under the increasingly transparent skin of Nokia. With this in mind we want to tell you about the Nokia Fellows, a collective of unsung minds within Nokia who’d normally (and now here’s the exception) go about their business untouched by limelight.

A bunch of the brightest and most influential technological experts working within Nokia, read on as we briefly shine the torch on how the Nokia Fellows affect widespread innovation within Nokia, and watch a video interview with Valtteri Niemi, the latest person to be named a Nokia Fellow.

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GLOBAL – A couple of weeks ago we brought you our first impressions of the new Nokia Beta Labs site. Now the new-look site has been officially switched on, and already it’s awash with community debate and the co-creative juices are flowing.

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